And it's pissing me off. I have a good game that I took years to build. But my coach got married and his wife has a fit when any attractive women show up for lessons. I understand her insecurity -- she stole him from his previous wife and she herself was a former student. So I decided to ease my stress and get a new coach. Last night was my first lesson with the new guy (who came highly recommended by the old guy). The first thing he did was tell me to stand 6 feet behind the baseline. I'm like, hey dude, Agassi is my hero and he stands on the baseline. I compromise by standing 6 inches behind it. What more do you want? He insists. So I move back. But it's not natural for me so after one shot, I find myself instinctively moving in. Then he says, stop hitting open stance on the forehand, you need to turn your shoulders. I'm like, what does it matter if my shots are effective? Then he's like, don't make such a loop on the backhand. I'm like, dude, my backhand stings, even YOU can't get it back. Then he's like don't toss so high on the serve. I'm like, dude what does it matter if I connect with the damn ball every time? And so it went, all night long.

So I've decided that I'm going back to my old coach. His insecure wife can go to hell. I need someone who won't try to change every damn thing about my game.

So, how do you deal with a change of coach? Am I rushing to judgment? Should I give New Guy a fairer shot or should I say to hell with the bitch and go back to the Old Guy?

"A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous..."

The purpose of a coach is to help and fix the weaker parts of your game and work WITH you to maximize your potential. If your shots are already effective and your gameplan is fine, and he is trying to change everything, kick his ass to the curb

A coach should teach you how to hit the shots right. Big deal if it's effective, if it's wrong, he must call on it. The higher the toss the more predictable your serve will be, for instance. Open stance shouldn't be used all the time, and so on.

The purpose of a coach is to help and fix the weaker parts of your game and work WITH you to maximize your potential. If your shots are already effective and your gameplan is fine, and he is trying to change everything, kick his ass to the curb

Quote:

A coach should teach you how to hit the shots right. Big deal if it's effective, if it's wrong, he must call on it. The higher the toss the more predictable your serve will be, for instance. Open stance shouldn't be used all the time, and so on.

2 different and opposing responses perfectly capturing my dilemma.

Yes a coach's job is to help me hit shots right. And if he was changing something WRONG to something RIGHT, I would have no problem with that. But that is not what happened. It felt as if he needed to prove his credibility as a coach by trying to make a whole set of changes in my game. It was almost as if he has no concept of a woman player being that good so he had to assert his manliness. I kid you not.

I agree that one should not hit open stance all the time. I don't. But it's what I do best. I agree that when the toss is too high the serve can become less controlled. But my toss is not that high. He wants me to toss only as high as the contact point and not an inch higher. Sorry but that interrupts my natural flow.

Anyway today I hit with him again. After warming up we did a contact volley drill. I got back 90% of his volleys. He got back about 70% of mine. So then he said let's play points. No problemo. Except that my return of serve is a killer so in the end I won twice as many points as he did. It started getting dark and the lights weren't working so he said last four. Cool. I won all four points. So he got four more. And then four more. And I realized that the only way I'd get off the damn court was by messing up deliberately. So I deliberately shanked a return. And he was happy and stopped playing. No I am not lying. That is EXACTLY what happened.

His ass is so fired.

So I called up Old Guy to find out what the deal was that he sent me to this idiot. And he said because I want you to come back. So I said fine but make sure your wife doesn't take out a contract on my f**king head. And he laughed. And we are hitting on Saturday morning as usual.

"A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous..."

Well, I'd never let a coach make something like that, to be honest. I usually never counteract my coach, but he trains me on the lines I want to. For instance, he is a baseliner, but I like going to the net all the time, so I made him work more on that. Same goes as when he starts playing mr. big shot: if I hit an approach shot down the middle I want to volley, I don't want a winner back, or I'd hit an approach/winner down the line or with some angle and he wouldn't even reach it. I believe that it's a compromise, but he's being paid, so he has to do whatever I want.

And it's pissing me off. I have a good game that I took years to build. But my coach got married and his wife has a fit when any attractive women show up for lessons. I understand her insecurity -- she stole him from his previous wife and she herself was a former student. So I decided to ease my stress and get a new coach. Last night was my first lesson with the new guy (who came highly recommended by the old guy). The first thing he did was tell me to stand 6 feet behind the baseline. I'm like, hey dude, Agassi is my hero and he stands on the baseline. I compromise by standing 6 inches behind it. What more do you want? He insists. So I move back. But it's not natural for me so after one shot, I find myself instinctively moving in. Then he says, stop hitting open stance on the forehand, you need to turn your shoulders. I'm like, what does it matter if my shots are effective? Then he's like, don't make such a loop on the backhand. I'm like, dude, my backhand stings, even YOU can't get it back. Then he's like don't toss so high on the serve. I'm like, dude what does it matter if I connect with the damn ball every time? And so it went, all night long.

So I've decided that I'm going back to my old coach. His insecure wife can go to hell. I need someone who won't try to change every damn thing about my game.

So, how do you deal with a change of coach? Am I rushing to judgment? Should I give New Guy a fairer shot or should I say to hell with the bitch and go back to the Old Guy?